Elephants and Hares

One day the hares assembled to chalk out a plan to save themselves from the menace of the wayward elephants. An older one among them said, “these elephants will come every day and every day many of us will die. We must find a solution to this problem.”

A wiser one among them said, “The great Manu had said that it was better to abandon a person to save the whole community, abandon the community to save the village and abandon the village to save the country. Even if the land were fertile, a wise king would abandon it if it were in the interests of his subjects.”

But the other hares protested and said, “How can we do that? We have been living here for several generations. Let us find an alternative. Let us see if we can scare the elephants by some means.”

Some of them said, “We know of a trick that works with the elephants. However, we need a very intelligent person.”

Pressed to reveal the plan, they said, “Our ruler Vijayadatta lives in the lunar sphere. Let us send a messenger to the elephant king. The plan is to tell the elephant king that the Moon does not like the elephants visiting the lake for water because they are killing and maiming hundreds of hares. The Moon has declared the lake out of bounds for the elephants.”